Sliding vane compressors are well known to those skilled in the art and are disclosed, e.g., in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,310,326, 4,384,828, 4,242,065, 4,132,512, 3,877,853, and the like. The disclosure of each of these United States patents is hereby incorporated by reference into this specification.
The classical single rotor-sliding vane compressor is one of the oldest type of compressors on the market. The reason for its early arrival is found in its simplicity of construction and ease of machining. Its disadvantage is that it must operate at low speeds, except for very small machines, requiring large sized compressors, and its efficiency is not sufficiently high to compensate for its size. As a result, except for the very low capabilities, the classical sliding vane compressor has fallen into disfavor with the arrival of improved machining techniques that has fostered other types of compression devices that were not possible to produce in the early days of the sliding vane compressor.
It is an object of this invention to provide a sliding vane compressor which can be operated at a substantially higher speed than prior art sliding vane compressors.
It is another object of this invention to provide a sliding vane compressor which, during its operation, will experience substantially reduced tip loading on the sliding vanes.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a sliding vane compressor which is substantially more durable than prior art sliding vane compressors.